Zombie(s) in Madrid

Stand up, stretch, take a deep breath, and whatever you do, DON'T PANIC.

Here we go. Part two of The Big Trip, or Hopefully the Food is More Like What We're Used To, or At Least the Languages Use the Roman Alphabet.

After a lovely month and half back in the US visiting friends and family (and family, and family, and family) we're back on the road.  Our flight left Boston around 6PM eastern time and landed in Madrid around 7AM. This flight was not very well coordinated with the Andy Bourassa School of Slumber. 7AM in Madrid is 1AM on the east coast of the US, right about my bedtime. As you have probably guessed, I didn't sleep on the plane - more on that later.

We (eventually) met up with Katie's sister Laura at the airport and made our way to the hostel. It was too early to check in so we stored our bags and noticed a "free" walking tour of the city that was leaving in less than an hour, cool! This also happened to be the day that The Pope was coming to Madrid. Wicked.
The group from our hostel met up with groups from a few other hostels and eventually congregated at Puerta del Sol with our British tour guide Harriet. For about three hours we made our way around the city stopping at major landmarks and hearing what Harriet had to say. These stops also included: sleeping standing up, sleeping while walking, sleeping while squatting and the ever so popular, sleeping while sweating. But in all seriousness it was a lovely tour, Harriet was wonderful and the Madridian sites are beautiful. I can only imagine how much better it would be if experienced while awake and with less of an emphasis on throngs of people manically preparing to see the pope.

 Harriet, our guide

After the tour we were quite hungry (and exhausted) so we wandered around our hostel and ended up going into the first restaurant that some schmuck off the street suggested (poor choice). A lot of the restaurants have a Menú de Día that is basically a set menu where you have a couple of choices for each course and pay a fixed price. Course one was paella for me and Laura and cold tomato soup for Katie. Course two was scallops for Katie and Laura and chicken for me. The scallops ended up being a steak so I gave Katie my chicken and took her steak. Now I'm not much of a steak aficionado, but I can tell you that it was definitely one of the top three worst steaks I have ever had. Onward! Course three was dessert. I had a mediocre flan type thing and Katie and Laura had bread pudding. The meal also included a glass of sangria each and some bread. This was probably the worst meal we will have had while in Spain, but it nourished us. Oh yea, and this was all 10 euros each.

The view from our hostel room

After lunch/dinner we went back to the hostel, had naps and woke up in time for the hostel's free sangria and games night. We spent an hour or two playing king's cup and flip cup with other people staying at the hostel.